The People You Meet in Bars
by GreenEyesStaring
Summary: Elliot asks questions during a round of after-work drinks, and Olivia finds that she cannot answer one of them, so she searches for the answer. A/O.


Hello! Back again with another story revolving around my current favorite pairing, Alex/Olivia. Hope you enjoy!

**Disclaimer: **I do not own these characters, I simply put them into situations that make me smile.

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"How 'bout her?"

"Nope,"

"How can you be so sure?"

"How can you not? Look at her: the way she sits, the way her hands move, the way she wears her clothes, and of course, the way she's talking to that man. You can just _tell._"

"Hm…well, maybe. But what about her right there? She's _got _to be a lesbian; she's wearing boots in September."

Detective Olivia Benson groaned inwardly and took another drink of her beer. On the barstool beside her, Detective Elliot Stabler ingested a fistful of the peanuts as he waited eagerly for Olivia's response. A proud and expectant look decorated his usually stern face, as if content with himself for having used his hard-earned detective skills on something as relatively trivial as guessing a bar patron's sexuality. And though Olivia enjoyed this game about as much as one would enjoy having their eyelashes ripped out one a time, she was actually thankful that this was happening.

In the two weeks since she had come out to her partner (albeit, accidentally), Olivia had observed a reserved air in Elliot when it came to talking about women or relationships, which Olivia realized came up _a lot_ in their line of work. While all other aspects of their relationship went relatively unaffected, it was painfully obvious that the proverbial elephant was in the room whenever any conversation between them or the squad called for vocalizing personal opinions about physical attractions, good looks, and past relationships. After spending a fortnight in a draining, overly politically-correct business attitude, Olivia had invited Elliot for drinks after their relatively early day, and the two had sat down and talked.

Forty-five minutes later (the first ten of which had been unforgettably awkward), the air had cleared amazingly, and the casual, brotherly air that had escaped Elliot during the course of the past two weeks seeped indiscriminately back into him. With the comfort between them renewed, Elliot had started asking questions. Questions which had inevitably led to their current game. But as she turned to eye the woman Elliot had pointed out, Olivia decided that she would much rather sit in a bar entertaining his partner's juvenile whims, than sit in the squad car on the way to a scene with nothing between then but awkward silence.

"Yeah, she's gay," Olivia answered. "Though it has nothing to do with her boots. And this is the last one I'm calling."

Elliot let his eyes linger on the woman's boots for a minute longer, wondering if Olivia's statement could have been some kind of private joke, and turned contentedly to his beer and peanuts. He took a sip of the one beer he was allowing himself, and sighed, "Again, Olivia, I'm sorry for the way I acted."

"It's understandable, Elliot," Olivia replied. She was being honest. "Men tend to be really weird about gay women. And with you being Roman Catholic and all, well, it's not surprising that you took it as…less than well as you did."

"I wasn't being weird -," he began.

Olivia shot him a glance. He stopped talking, but that did not spare him the burn from her amber eyes as the truth of the past fortnight interactions boiled to the surface. "Really? Then let's backtrack, shall we? Because if I remember correctly, not only have you strained to say more than three words to me all week, but I can't say anything about any woman anywhere without you taking my motives into question, or analyzing my point of view, wondering if I have some deep-seated lust for every woman on the streets of New York, whether she be real or plastered on a billboard advertising shampoo." Elliot cringed at the recollection of just how terribly that conversation, stemmed from an off-handed comment about the way the woman in the advertisement was holding the bottle, had ended. "And all I wanted from you, my partner and friend, was a little support and understanding. I could have done wonders without that judgmental, holier-than-thou look you've had on your mug since the second this accidentally slipped out."

"Olivia, I -"

"For God's sake, Elliot, you couldn't refer to me as your partner for the better part of last week!"

Elliot lowered his head in shame, then raised his eyes to his parent. "I realize, now, what a giant ass I was; I being stupid and immature and treated you like – like you were weird for being the way you are, for being gay. I realize that, and I apologize, again, wholeheartedly because I was such a dick to my best friend when all you wanted was support. I'm sorry, Olivia. It just took a while to sink in that you weren't a different person. And I swear this had nothing to do with my religious denomination of choice."

"You know, I tried to tell myself that I don't care what people think," Olivia said, and fell silent.

Elliot took another drink of his beer, and set the bottle firmly down on the counter. "But, Olivia, you don't."

"True," she replied. "I couldn't care less what people think, but at the end of the day, I realized that I care what _you_ think. You're my best friend, and what you have to say matters to me."

"You matter to me, too, Liv," Elliot said. "Why else do you think I stopped wearing that maroon tie?"

And Olivia found herself smiling at that. There was something very comforting about having Elliot back on her side again. As much as she liked to believe that she was a very emotionally independent person, Olivia counted on Elliot for emotional and mental stability when it came to their job, and something like that sense of dependence had unwittingly slipped into their personal relationship. And it was good to know that he no longer thought any differently of her. Olivia was about to propose they head out, or at least sit down in the restaurant to order some dinner, when Elliot's face burst into a very wide grin and he discreetly indicated with a tip from his beer bottle someone on the other side of the bar.

"What about her? Gay or straight?"

Olivia didn't turn, didn't even lift her eyes from Elliot's face. "Elliot Stabler, I did not share intimate details of my personal life with you so that you could exploit me in your hetero male bar games. Besides, I told you the Boots McGee was the last one I was calling."

"Have this one be the last one," he said.

"No, I'm done for today,"

"Liv, I swear you're not going to regret it," he persisted. "Just turn around and tell me if the blonde in the skirt plays for your team." Olivia considered ripping Elliot a new one for his fine choice of words, but decided against it and turned toward the object of her partner's insistence.

_The blonde in the skirt._

Never had words failed so much to describe a random bar patron. The blonde in a skirt, as Elliot had so eloquently put it, was the most beautiful woman Olivia Benson had ever seen. She was tall and thin, with delicate features and smooth curves hidden under an impeccable steel-grey designer skirt suit. Her hair was the color of pale gold, and fell indiscriminately over her shoulders as she walked from the door to the bar. But it was her eyes, the crystal orbs of fierce cobalt staring everyone down, that captured Olivia and made something rise in her chest. She suddenly found herself very thankful of the fact that she was already seated.

Olivia felt a sudden flush of warmth within her body, and redirected the sudden rush of energy to her hand, which tightened its grip around her bottle of beer. It was all she could do to keep herself from looking like a dazzled high school freshman with a boner. She turned away brusquely, eyeing the bar in front of her to keep from staring. She felt the warmth spread itself over her face, and prayed that Elliot had not noticed it.

He had. Damn his fine detecting skills.

Bypassing the questions he was sure he knew the answers to, Elliot jumped to what he assumed would be the most logical reason for his partner to take a sudden interest in the scarred wooden bar on which they rested their drinks. "You know her, don't you?"

Olivia shook her head, "Nope, never seen her before."

"Then what's with the schoolgirl blush?"

Olivia gripped her beer bottle tighter, stealing a glance at the blonde, who was now at the bar, sitting alone, and had just begun to nurse what looked like a scotch on the rocks. "You don't have to know someone to find them extremely attractive."

"Ah," Elliot said. He peered sidelong over Olivia's head and studied the woman in question. She was beautiful, alright. With a thin, defined face and intense blue eyes. The word that came to Elliot's mind was elegant, which served only to accent her natural beauty. This woman was elegant in that old money, whiskey and cigars at the country club kind of way. "You have very good taste in women, Olivia. She's stunning." Any further assessment of Olivia's ability to choose potential dates was cut off, however, when Elliot's phone rang.

As Elliot tended to his call, Olivia let her eyes, and her head, roam in the direction of the woman again. She sat at the bar, gracefully sipping from her glass and taking the occasional peanut from the small basket in front of her between long, slim fingers. Olivia wondered if she was waiting for someone, or if the fact that the seat next to hers was empty meant that it was an open invitation to join her. The blonde's hair was excellently done, her posture immaculate, and the suit feminine to the last drop. In a word, she looked regal, and terribly out of place.

_What the hell is she doing in a third-rate cop dive like this one? _Olivia scanned her discreetly, looking for any clues to further educate herself about this beautiful woman. _That's suit's real high-end, must be worth half of my paycheck. No ring; no jewelry, really, except earrings…Scotch on the rocks is not a typical straight girl drink, but it's not a definite indicator of anything, either…_And then Olivia caught herself trying to make her, playing Elliot's game even though she said she didn't want to anymore.

But this woman at the bar, this blonde in a skirt, Olivia had to know. She made a move to get up, but wrenched her ass back into her seat before any observable movement was made. Olivia decided to finish her beer and wait if the stunning blonde was still sitting alone when the last of her beer passed her lips. _Give it a few seconds_, she thought. _A couple of minutes._

"Well, that was Kathy," Elliot said, snapping his phone shut. "Maureen's having a few friends over for dinner, and she wants me to pick up some groceries."

"Do you have to leave now?"

"Nah, I can hang out for a bit longer," he said. He took another pull of his beer. "So, you figured her out yet?"

"No, I haven't," Olivia said, frowning into her bottle. "I got nothing. She's either straight, or gayer than a book of Walt Whitman's poetry."

"Right," Elliot said. "So, you gonna go over there or what?"

"Yes, yes, I am," Olivia said. She pulled herself away from the bar and mused her hair. Elliot offered her a smile and a thumbs-up before she took a breath and walked confidently to the other side of the bar. Elliot watched with unexpected rising anticipation and the slightest hint of wonder as Olivia approached the blonde, exchanged a few inaudible words, and sat down in the empty stool next to her.

Over on his side of the bar, Elliot gave up a silent cheer as Olivia and the blonde talked. Within minutes, they had ordered another round of drinks. Elliot watched as they made conversation, took a few sips from their glasses, swaped smiles and looks. With an amused though, Elliot suddenly realized he was tapping the bar with his fingers in anticipation. He made a fist to keep his eager fingers from betraying his otherwise cool demeanor, and tried to look like the rest of the disinterested patrons as he turned back to his beer and the hockey game on television. Some minutes later, he shot another glance in Olivia's general direction and saw both women rise from the bar, still smiling.

Elliot couldn't suppress the chuckle that escaped his throat at his partner's triumph. Olivia exchanged a small glance with him as she came over to grab her jacket. "Name's Alex," she said quickly. "She has the most captivating eyes." Olivia pulled some money out of her pocket and placed it on the bar.

"Don't worry about it," Elliot said as he slid her money back into her hands. "Consider this part of my apology. You and Alex have a good time."

"Thanks. See ya tomorrow, Elliot."

"Good night, Liv," he replied. He shook his head as a smile formed on the corners of his mouth. Following the pair out the door with his eyes, Elliot felt something like a proud older brother having just watched his kid sister do something decidedly praiseworthy. He finished his beer, and paid the tab. Tomorrow's after-shift drinks were going to be particularly interesting.

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**Hope you enjoyed, everyone. As always, reviews/comments are love!**


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